Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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Homme dans une église parlant à l'assemblée

Are Churches Becoming Victims of Stockholm Syndrome?

In a new book, John West looks at the problem of evangelical church leaders adopting the belief systems of their opponents, perhaps to stay safe

The challenge, he argues, is to maintain Christian values while challenging Christian leaders who compromise in order to stay safe and successful.

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old books background

Rodney Stark: A Historian Finds a History Amid Cultural Myths

As his views matured, Stark found himself more and more opposed to the nineteenth-century positivist founders of social science

Stark, reappraising the role of religion, found that seeing history through a positivist, materialist lens reduces its complexities to caricatures.

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Evangelist Hello Name Tag Sticker Supporter Preacher 3d Illustration

Richard Dawkins as an Unlikely Evangelist

As a recent book of essays demonstrates, the once much-vaunted new atheism spurred many thinking people to become Christians

Leading atheist philosophers have found Dawkins’s arguments superficial, many find his “warfare” thesis against religion shallow and his certitude unjustified.

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The confrontation of a heatwave and a melting glacier, symbolizing the collision of rising temperatures and shrinking ice masses. Concept of climate change impact on glaciers. Generative Ai.

New Atheism Is Shrinking and It’s Not Entirely Clear Why

Now, there is an eerie unfashionable silence that fashionable media are beginning to notice. For one thing, it is affecting Richard Dawkins

The Woke, it turns out, are no more tolerant of atheists than they are of anyone else with divergent views. That may be what finally fells new atheism.

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Y chromosome on dark background. Blue color. 3d illustration.

Biologist Kicked Out of National Institutes of Health Event

Colin Wright and Tomas Bogardus, also ejected, deny being disruptive but both think that humans are sex binary. That may have been enough

In a world of private truth that owes nothing to either faith or science, dissenting opinion is an invasion from an alien universe. Stay safe by not hearing.

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A bunch of pink and purple scheme with a DNA strand in the background. concept XX, XY chromosome.

Olympics: The Woke Have a Message for Science: Scram

Science no longer has a seat at the High Table. I hope readers will think through the implications of that and what it portends for all of us

Science — when it gets in the way of Woke culture — is beginning to get the same treatment as religion: ignored, mocked, rewritten, and eventually attacked.

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Fiery Apocalyptic Planet Earth Engulfed in Scorching Flames and Devastating Destruction

When Darwinism becomes a fashionable doomsday cult…

Like all cults, it can make otherwise intelligent people begin to sound rather strange, even precarious

One thing the dialogue makes quite clear is that Darwinism can underlie a classic fashionable cult that does not reflect well on its adherents’ intelligence.

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Female empowerment in science: Arabic woman scientist with a veil working with a microscope in a high-tech laboratory

Religious Scientists Balance Work and Faith — on a Knife Edge

A recent article in Nature both sums up — and typifies — the problems they face, weaving around the presumption of atheism

What benefits does the presumption of atheism provide? So many disciplines reel under peer review scandals while trust in science has diminished over the years.

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Red Pill Blue Pill concept. The right choice the concept of the movie matrix. The choice of tablets

What Drives the Belief That We Live in a Computer Sim Universe?

The lack of evidence for the sim is admitted — but then we are challenged to prove that it ISN’T true…

If we grasp the psychological role that the belief that we live in a sim universe plays, it’s easier to see why it persists in the absence of evidence.

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Mysterious arch of clouds over water, portal to heaven

Can an Atheist Believe in Life After Death?

An atheist philosopher makes the case at Closer to Truth

There is much evidence to suggest that the human mind is immaterial and immateriality is one of the characteristics of things that do not die.

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Futuristic AI robot in priest attire stands inside church and preaching. Setting combines traditional religious elements with advanced technology, showcasing unique blend of past and future.

Father Justin, a Chatbot, is Absolving Sinners

Critics are calling for the AI priest to be "taken down immediately."

Catholic Answers is a “media ministry that serves Christ by explaining and defending the Catholic faith,” according to their description on X. For Catholic observers, it serves as a good resource for deepening one’s faith and finding clarification on certain Catholic doctrines. However, the site recently introduced a controversial new member to the team: Father Justin, a chatbot “priest” designed to help answer people’s questions about Catholicism. In defense of this AI app, Catholic Answers said, As a leading Catholic apostolate, Catholic Answers is committed to leveraging the latest technologies to advance its mission of explaining and defending the Catholic faith. The Father Justin app is the latest example of this commitment, providing a new and appealing way for searchers Read More ›

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Refreshing summer cocktails with a slice of lime. Alcoholic drink. Garnished with a sprig of mint, citrus and ice cubes. In the bar.

Are the New Atheists Losing Their “Cool” Quotient?

And taking Darwinism with them? A look at what’s happened in the last two decades would seem to suggest that

The Four Horsemen of the atheist apocalypse no longer ride at full gallop and a close observer has noted that their cause has devolved to social justice issues.

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A space alien sits on a golden throne Ai generated art

William Dembski: Destroy the AI Idol Before It Destroys Us

Design theorist Dembski points to the way that chess adapted to computers to become better than ever as a way forward in the age of AI

Dembski warns that the promoters of AI as “taking over” have a vested interest in claims that keep them at the top of society’s intellectual and social order.

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Flame of Evolution: Unveiling the Neanderthal's Discovery of Fire - A Surprising and Transformative Moment for Homo Sapiens, Marking an Astonishing Breakthrough in Ancient Culture.

Asked at Psychology Today: Were Neanderthals Religious?

We can’t poll long-dead Neanderthals on life, death, and the hereafter but the evidence we’ve dug up suggests they were thinking about that kind of thing

We must mentally step outside nature to consider things like how the world was created or what lies beyond death. Immaterial minds can do that.

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Ancient city of Babylon with the tower of Babel, bible and religion. AI generated, human enhanced

Dembski: Does the Squawk Around AI Sound Like the Tower of Babel?

Well then, maybe that’s just what it is, he argues, in a new series of short essays

Dembski sees the breathless and implausible claims for computers that think like people as the modern equivalent of ancient idols. Here are some highlights.

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Chinese flags on barbed wire wall in Kashgar (Kashi), Xinjiang, China.

China: An inside look at Neo-Totalitarianism

Writing in the journal Dignitas, Heather Zeiger outlines the Chinese government’s attempt at total control of the everyday life of residents of XinJiang province

This approach to government — a hybrid of totalitarian aspirations and advanced AI surveillance techniques — has been called neo-totalitarianism.

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New Book Looks at Design in Nature From a Catholic Viewpoint

Catholic thinkers who reject Darwinism don’t focus so much on its claims about universal common descent as on its utter inability to account coherently for the human mind

n Chapter 10, Scott Ventureyra points out that, paradoxically, our weakness and capacity for sin makes us nobler than the countless life forms that cannot sin.

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Real robot's hand with ancient Bible. Concepts of artificial intelligence development and machine learning

“Bible GPT” For All Your Big Religious Questions

Is it a tool or a big crossing of the line?

For big questions about God, meaning, and religion, AI might not be the best listener or pastor.

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An image of a robot meditating. Generative AI

Study: Robotic Preachers Reduce Interest in Religious Faith

They are certainly not the answer to declining attendance and involvement that some have hoped they would be

It’s not just that the robot/AI doesn’t have spiritual experiences. It can’t, and there was no thought of the matter when it was developed.

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